[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12171]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         HIGH PRICE OF GASOLINE

  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, where is a good Samaritan? My 
friends are talking about the high price of gasoline. Can you imagine 
the impact on those who have exhausted their unemployment, people who 
have built this Nation, hard-working Americans.
  Do you recognize that just this past week, unfortunately, with 
embarrassment, the administration had to announce that unemployment 
rose 5 percent in April, 5.5 percent in May, 49,000 jobs were lost. 
Where is the good Samaritan?
  That is why today Democrats will stand on the floor of the House and 
stand alongside of working Americans and extend the unemployment 
benefits for those families who have exhausted all of their resources, 
this will go into March 2009, helping the bus driver, the nurse, 
helping those who are working with their hands, who have families to 
support, who can barely get gasoline.
  Can you imagine being unemployed through no fault of your own, and 
this administration does not want to offer the extension of 
unemployment benefits? Today the good Samaritan will be on the floor of 
the House. We will debate this question. We will pass this bill. The 
President will sign it, and we will give relief to hard-working 
Americans.

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